Some Miami gallerists and even artists are bucking the traditional pattern of art district gentrification, where artists and galleries find big, cheap places to rent, move in, jazz up a neighborhood, then move out when their rent is inevitably increased beyond affordability. These people are now buying their next spaces. Three of Miami’s leading galleries, Emerson Dorsch, Gallery Diet, and &gallery purchased spaces along one street, NW 2nd Avenue in Little River/Little Haiti, and are transforming that drag into a new and permanent arts neighborhood.
Some Miami gallerists and even artists are bucking the traditional pattern of art district gentrification, where artists and galleries find big, cheap places to rent, move in, jazz up a neighborhood, then move out when their rent is inevitably increased beyond affordability. These people are now buying their next spaces. Three of Miami’s leading galleries, Emerson Dorsch, Gallery Diet, and &gallery purchased spaces along one street, NW 2nd Avenue in Little River/Little Haiti, and are transforming that drag into a new and permanent arts neighborhood.
“Ownership is laying the foundation for what you do and not relying on someone else. Miami is going through a Renaissance we’ve never experienced. This is a city where everything comes in waves. There’s a certain quality of people and atmosphere and culture here that was never here before. Miami is housing different types of businesses we’ve never had before. The creative community—from the design side to the people opening galleries—are laying the foundation for this new population that wasn’t really here before. I mean, Miami is small and it seems like there’s so much land. But in terms of proximity to the truly urban core, all of that property has already been speculated to the point where prices have increased so dramatically that it doesn’t offer an opportunity for that creative class.” Jordan Trachtenberg of &gallery told Art F City in a lengthy discussion with the people behind all three galleries.
